Ghana will co-operate with Global leading ICT Company, Huawei Technologies, to offer various training programmes, especially in ICT skills to over 10,000 Ghanaians, including government officials and civil servants, students and professionals by 2024, to boost the country’s ICT talent pool, whilst facilitating the digital transformation agenda of the government.
This was revealed when a Huawei delegation led by Mr. Leo Chen, the company’s President for the Southern Africa Region, paid a working visit to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana, as part of the tech giant’s commitment to Ghana’s digitalisation drive.
During the meeting, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, highlighted importance of education to his government and Ghanaians as a whole. He went ahead to praise the company’s contribution towards the nurturing of ICT talents in Ghana. The President, therefore, welcomed the new collaboration to train over 10,000 Ghanaians in the next three years, and urged the Ministries of Education and Communications and Digitalization to work with Huawei and the relevant state agencies and stakeholders to achieve this goal.
The President also expressed his satisfaction with Huawei’s activities in Ghana, and commended the Tech giant for their socio-economic contributions to Ghana through boosting connectivity, introducing new digital applications, and investing in digital literacy. “I am very satisfied with Huawei in Ghana and also as a [strategic ICT] partner of the government. I wish Huawei all the best in their operations in Ghana, your success is our success as well”, the President said.
During the meeting, Mr. Chen highlighted the importance of digitization and pointed out that Ghana has great potential to be the regional hub for digital services, with her improving infrastructure, robust economic performance, and business enabling environment. He said investing in ICT is key to turning Ghana’s digital margins into social economic development towards an inclusive digital future.
The Managing Director for Huawei Ghana, Mr. Tommy Zhou, reiterated the company’s commitment to Ghana, and mentioned that, in 2018, Huawei made a promise to President Akufo-Addo to train 5,000 Ghanaians. He noted that the company has since exceeded that target, and hence the new target of providing digital literacy to 10,000 Ghana by 2024. He mentioned that Huawei hopes to achieve this target through the Huawei ICT Training (HIT) programme, which is targeted across the educational value chain, from basic education to the tertiary level.
Mr. Zhou also said that Huawei has contributed to the economy of Ghana by co-operating with over 80 local suppliers, and sub-contractors to provide over 3,500 jobs in Ghana over the past 5 years. He added that, Huawei is committed and the company will continue to contribute meaningfully to the socio-economic development of the country.
